Orlando Fringe review: 'Made for Each Other'

John Fica stars in "Made for Each Other." (Stephen M. Dowell, Orlando Sentinel)

Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel Theater Critic

"Made for Each Other," I suppose, is technically a romantic comedy. But this is no Meg Ryan movie. On the surface, it's about budding romance between two men; as the show opens, Jerry has just proposed marriage to a flabbergasted Vincent — on a cell phone, no less.

But the gay angle is almost irrelevant to the heart of the story. For "Made for Each Other" is really about the most primal fears of humankind — growing older, being alone, losing your health, losing your dream.

Written by Monica Bauer, actor John Fico deftly plays the show's four characters. He inhabits semi-neurotic Vincent and more easy-going Jerry almost matter-of-factly, a critical move so the audience gets to know them — but not pity them. Each of the two men is guided by an internal voice, that of an influential family member.

Vincent hears the rasping words of his five-times-married mother, now suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Jerry is counseled by his deceased uncle, a rascally Italian. These two larger-than-life characters allow Fico to broaden his acting style and weave necessary comic relief around the show's more serious points.

The best of the humor is situational: Jerry and Vincent are the kind of couple who would plan their wedding around a matinee of "Anything Goes."

But at the end of the day, it's not the brasher characters or jokes you'll remember. After the lights come up, what endures is the quiet ending and what it says about family, about compassion, about human bonding, about love.